People are starting to wise up to what Facebook is doing with your data.

In fact according to the Ponemon Institute, trust in Facebook took a 66% Plunge in 2018. Over the past few years Facebook has been collecting vast amounts of data of all its users, which quite frankly is scary. You can see exactly what Facebook has on you by downloading your data zip file here.

Everything from photos and messages to mobile phone numbers of everyone in your phone. They also have all your text messages you’ve made on your cell phone! It’s crazy how much they have. And with the recent Facebookl CA scandal, people are now looking for alternatives to Facebook where privacy is respected and private information is never shared or sold to other companies or organisations.

Believe it or not, there are plenty of social networks and messaging apps that you can use instead of Facebook. For years these networks and apps have been living in the shadows of the mighty beast that is Facebook. But now is the time to explore a better way of interacting with friends and family without the fear of your data being stolen and stored on huge servers in far flung places.

Best Social Network Alternatives To Facebook

Ello

Ello launched back in 2014 with quite a stir in the US as it was about the time when Facebook changed its policy on names of its members, where they had to use their proper legal name. Its popularity grew as Ello presented itself to the world as a “Facebook killer social network” which doesn’t push ads down its users’ throats and doesn’t sell peoples’ information and data to 3rd parties.

Ello is growing fast again, especially as the #deletefacebook movement is gathering pace. People want to feel safe and secure on a social network and it doesn’t seem to be that way on Facebook at the moment. Hence why platforms like Ello are gobbling up these Facebook migrants.

Ello currently is a home to artists and creative people, but has the platform to embrace all types of users.

Vero

Vero presents itself as “a social network for anyone who loves anything enough to share it – and wants control over who they share it with. Just like we do in real life.”

Vero is a subscription based social network. It shows no ads and doesn’t collect data. It’s a totally different model to Facebook in the sense that Facebook needs user data in order to make money from them. Vero does collect some usage data which is used to see how often the app is used, but note that this option by default is off. Unlike Facebook where they have everything turned on and you have to go into your settings and turn them off.

Another great thing about the usage data they collect is how its displayed to you. Vero want to address the issue of social media addiction.

Vero says that they want the platform to enhance your life and not detract from it. So they use the usage data that they collect from you to show you how much time you’re spending in the app so you can manage your screen time.

Mastodon

Mastodon launched in 2017 and made quite an impact on the social network scene. Mastodon is a free, open-source social network. When it launched it was presented as an open source Twitter competitor, but as people are leaving Facebook its being used the same way you would Facebook, which makes it a really good alternative to Facebook.

Ultimately Mastodon is a decentralized alternative to all the commercial social network platforms, which means that no single company owns it or can monopolize your communication.

Steemit

Steemit is like a cross between Reddit and Quora where you can publish your posts which can be voted up or down depending if people like them or not ( similar to both reddit and quora ).

When you get upvotes you receive Steem crypto tokens which lends itself well to those cryptocurrency and open source enthusiasts. Also people are using the platform due to its compensation to the users for spending time using the platform.

Users don’t have to post anything if they don’t want to and it can simply be used as a news aggregator or just a platform to get involved in conversations related to specific interests.

Steemit has about 10 million visits per month which in comparison to Facebook is tiny! But its growing and it doesn’t gobble up your personal data and sell it to 3rd parties.

Raftr

Raftr calls itself a “civilized social network.” It launched in 2017 by Sue Decker, a former Yahoo executive. Here vision for the platform is to create a place where conversations and unfolding stories are the pure focus. Its a place where you can connect to the communities who share the same or similar interests that you have.

I love the initial sign up page as it gives you two options.

1: Find out what’s going on in the real world

or

2: Connect with people at your college / work / family etc.

What data do they collect?

Raft collects some data, but that’s only to build your profile. They do not share any of your personal data with 3rd parties.

Raft is a great alternative to Facebook and a platform where you can follow news, events and interests relevant to you.

Diaspora

Diaspora is also in the mix when it comes to Facebook alternatives. Diaspora is a decentralized social network that is nonprofit and runs on free Diaspora software. The software is in the form of a free personal web server.

As I just mentioned, Diaspora is decentralized which means no one person owns it. This means that it doesn’t have any form of advertisement and corporate interference. It also does not collect any of your data. When you create your account, you are responsible for your own data and retain the ownership of your personal data.

Unlike Facebook, Diaspora allows you to use whatever identity you want, so pseudonyms and nicknames are fine to display as your profile. You can use hashtags, mentions, text formatting, etc.

Minds

Minds is an open source social network that was created by Bill Ottman, John Ottman and Mark Harding in 2012, but launched to the public in 2015.

The platform is a community-owned social networking platform that rewards its users for their activity online, similar to the Steemit platform. They do this with paying users in crypto and providing users with more views on their posted content. Minds will monitor each users daily contribution and relative to the community. The amount a user gets will be determined by their percentage across the network which then determines their share of the Daily Reward Pool of tokens.

Minds social network is built on a foundation of freedom, transparency, privacy and democratization.

Messaging Apps – Alternative to Facebook

Jamie

My name is Jamie Spencer and I have spent the past 5 years building money making blogs. After growing tired of the 9-5, commuting and never seeing my family I decided that I wanted to make some changes and launched my first blog. Since then I have launched lots of successful niche blogs and after selling my survivalist blog I decided to teach other people how to do the same.

Here’s a thought… Since it’s abundantly clear (not just on this page/site) that people are getting completely fed up with the shananigans that FB is doing…and I just learned of more that could get group Admins completely wiped from FB, including their personal pages… would anyone be up for collaborating to start a brand new social network, from the ground up?

Without copying Facebook (they’ve sued people, or at least threatened, for duplicating pieces and parts, including part of their name) and combining options that are available separately on different websites such as: * Personal & business pages: Blog platforms * Connections: Dolphin (actually a framework to create your own network) * Groups: Mighty Networks –> which would include forum-style discussions, as to keep topics actually organized! * Education/How-to: Teachable, Khan Academy, etc * Alumni/yearbook-specific features: Flippingbook, Classmates * Photography/Art-specific: Smugmug, Zenfolio * Videos: YouTube (or anything with *tube in the name these days)

I mean to put the user first by combining features such as those to the point where jaws hit the floor when the features are shown to the user.

Maybe come up with some ideas and some mockups to get a Kickstarter campaign started?

The hardest part about making a change to a different platform is persuading your friends to follow. I’ve tried this several times with Minds, Mewe, et al. I get maybe 5 friends to make the change. Most are afraid their friends won’t follow them and their friends and their friends, etc. FB has been largely successful as the first platform of its type because once people are there few will try others for this reason. Social media is useless with the “social” part. Sure you can make new friends but most of us have invested greatly in the ones we have.

Even if your friends were willing to change to a different platform, perhaps they won’t pick the same alternative as you do. What is really needed to make this work is a platform that allows you to post to multiple other platforms at the same time and reply to comments from any platform. There is one tool similar to this, HootSuite, but it is not free and really supports businesses that must manage their social media platform.

I agree with you totally Rob! I had problems with Facebook several years ago and argue back and forth and didn’t get anywhere with them. They accused me of posting pornographic stuff on my site and all I ever posted was news about President Trump then not yet and inspirational Christian stuff. I finally said screw it and deactivated my account and I’ve never been the more happier. I didn’t use that account very often actually only used it for about 6 months that year because I was down with a broken ankle and board. The only reason I opened the account was I entered hey contest for Lay’s potato chips and didn’t win. Deactivating Facebook was no loss to me. When I want to talk with anybody all I have to do is call them or text them from my private phone and share my pictures through texting… it’s as simple as that. You’ll be more at peace if you get off of social media. I was actually contemplating about finding a better one than Facebook until I read your article Rob. I’m not looking anymore.

Facebook now, particularly the facebook admins in the Philippines was acting as a sociopolitical defender of a specific biased political party. They were doing anything like deleting posts, comments, blocking out your accounts, questioning your identity, and even prohibits your accounts when reporting something that is opposing their favored political parties. So biased, what a shame!

I was just deleted from facebook …used it every day. I love politics and yesterday I posted that I was a certain party member and facebook banned me … not for a few hours but for good …I am looking for a social network that does not discriminate…

I don’t care about Facebook selling my data as much as I care about Facebook CENSORING opinions they don’t like, unfairly banning users and deplatforming voices contrary to the Liberal-Social-Justice mindset. — If I put out ANY information on social media — including my email or location — I fully expect it to be public regardless of what the platform claims. If you are concerned about privacy, don;t put info out there. As far as browsing habits and interests, yes, they are public too! If you don;t want it known, be anonymous! It’s basic common sense. If you trust Suck-a-bird to uphold your privacy you are delusional.

I had a facebook account and a brand page to show my art work. I had spent over $200 on facebook ads when May 2019 came around. Facebook sent me a promotion that if I spent a certain amount and met other criteria during the run of my ad (which depended on how people reacted to my ad) I would get a huge credit to my Facebook ad account. I signed up. I spent more than the minimum amount for the promotion.

People love my art so the number of views and likes on my ad quickly met the requirements. Facebook began putting the credits into my Facebook Ad account …then flagged my account as spam. Not the ad, my ad wasn’t flagged ever, but the entire account I had on facebook was flagged. I wasn’t allowed to post anything. I was still allowed to contact their support center.

I contacted them through their own help/support system asking what was going on? I reminded them I was using facebook as a platform for my business and had never posted anything on anyone else’s facebook page. I had only posted on my own personal page and my brand page associated with my personal page. I asked them why posts on my own page and my original art created by me was now being flagged as spam when I only post images and posts on my own page? Their response was to shut down my Facebook account with no explanation. Their behavior is unreasonable.

They were making money off of me and I was using their services to get more customers. Facebook shut down my account simply because they lost money with their ad services on me. However, I would still have continued to run regular ads using their service as I had done before. I have since filed a complaint against FACEBOOK INC., with the federal trade commission, the California Attorney General, and a few other government agencies including a letter to my Congress rep.

I also sent a letter to FACEBOOK INC., service of process briefly describing the situation and why I had reported their fraudulent behavior to government agencies on a single page. In case anyone wants the info FACEBOOK INC., service of process in the State of California is:

Well done to all of you refusing to give Facebook or FlunkedBook as I call it, your information, keep refusing, they locked me out of my account the Christmas before last & kept demanding I give them identification, I told them they could demand until their eyes popped out, they weren’t getting anything due to the fact that I didn’t know who they were, what they’d do with it, they’re only a social media platform, not law enforcement or a government department so they had no legal or moral standing to make such outrageous demands, Twitter or MeWe have never made any demands, so where do they get off…..

Could I translate this informative article into my language Tâigí(Tâiwanse) and share it public？The mainstream social medias in Tâiwan are FB and IG I think, yeh FB got lots of problem I know, some of us move to Twitter as alternative…

I’m using Mastodon and Diaspora since they were the decentralize social media I first found out, but I’m not really “using”, the information is far less I can get from the mainstream, so I just share stuffs when I want to spread something.

Facebook has a monopoly and needs to be broken up like ma bell in the past! They stifle free speech and allow our enemies to spew anti-American slurs and should be shut down or fined billion’s for their anti American, Germany like in the war propaganda!

Agree! You can’t write anything bad about Obamas, the worst American couple. What did she accomplish? She is a disbarred lawyer. Her husband is the best President Iran ever had! We live in the country where the liberal media is lying every single day!

same here, I received a link on my phone, and i don’t use the facebook app, i choose to not connect as the link asked. Next day, Facebook has tell me i had “problems” to connecting to their site, i have click the link they sent me, asking for a pic of me…well i sent the pic!

then later, the pic wasn’t enough, they asked for my true ID…Ho hell NO! Account deactivated, till i send a ID! will never send it,it will never happen!

I used FB mostly to participate in funny/memes groups and for my sister who is abroad the country, never i posted anything about political stuff, religious, shocking content, NOTHING! They sure are constructing a solid database on that, stay way!

All these sites try to be far too different and people won’t budge due to the unfamiliarity. Mewe was the best one so far, but even it doesn’t offer some of the better features when it comes to organising who sees what.

Why not just copy Facebook note for note but remove all the crap? Keep the U.I. identical but don’t sell data, remove shit like the big text and Top stories, don’t auto post every single f**king edit you make or profile picture change. Also, make things like file sharing more than a measly 10MB.

Personally I don’t even mind ads if they are just in a corner of the screen or whatever and not in the main feed.

Keep the familiarity that people love but cut off the fat. It’s that simple!

Problem with a lot of these are they are just ‘Twitter’ with a fancy skin. You can’t actually chat and post like you can on Facebook. That’s whats missing in them. I can’t stand that hashtag and @ thing. I want to just post on their ‘timeline’ and have them post on mine. Some of these are phone only which is another no no for me

How does this make FB the better social media….all the fancy bells & whistles, while they sell of personal info? I never posted anything like personal info, family photos (which belong to FB now!) anything I was doing at the job or home, once I was hacked on FB a few years ago. I simply dropped them because I sent a posting on FB to FBI………guess where the addy came from…………..RU address. Russia. And hacked my Amazon account, changed password. Did the same thing, filled out the form on FBI.org, copied and pasted the infor for them. Amazon froze me immediately, set me up again on a clean account.

How about forget social media altogether and LIVE? You can take digital photos of your adventures and experiences, and upload them to a website that will print you a book in whatever type of binding you want. You can even add text so you can tell your story.

Another idea is to purchase an old school video cam and record real, permanent, physical video on cassette or reel-to-reel. You could also start a video/photo library made of SIM cards from your digital devices so you always have an original hard copy which you can upload to social media at any time without worrying about permanently losing it. I don’t know how much of my life I’ve wasted online, but It’s been too much.

Trying to spend less of my time on here and more of it in real life making money, so I can enjoy life more – debt free – politics free – sarcasm free – pseudo intellectualism free – butt pic in yoga pants free. The need to be validated is the plague of the century.

This myopic, self-focused, self-expression-addicted society is going to implode. It won’t last long – it will destroy itself. Don’t seek a replacement, don’t seek an alternative. Simply stop living vicariously through the internet.

Go incognito, off-grid; live a private life like the bad-ass that you really are.

This sounds great and all, it really gets you excited to watching prepper vids and going off the grid! …but It’s a straw man argument because you seem to imply that social networking is an alternative to real life, rather than just a single modern part of real life. In reality folks have a mix of real and online connections, and often the online connects are even real life connections as well – just people we don’t see often, or various other reasons. Like maybe folks have moved, been deployed, or just enjoy updating each other when not physically together at work/school/etc. There are myriad reasons to find utility in social networking sites. This isn’t the 90’s, and nearly everyone spends some amount of time doing something they value online, but that doesn’t in any way make them some looser with no real friends.

The only reason that it has all gone to hell is because we’ve allowed the corporations to sieze control of it all and they are using methods as devious as engineering the sites to facilitate the release of serotonin and endorphins. Exactly the same as addictive drugs. If you think that’s just conspiracy nonsense then look at the work of B.J. Fogg, the guy who’s research inspired Facebook to design their user experience to be, quite literally, addictive! The greedy corporations are who need to be nixed from the equation – not us.

The federated social network (made up of a variety of open platforms) is doing this. There’s no commercial interest, and if a commercial interest infiltrates and, say, the node operator puts up advertisements, then you move to another node. That’s simple to do by design on most platforms in the fediverse. There’s no real way to monetize a federated social platform like this, and trying to do so actually makes everyone leave. This is how it should be. If someone wants to earn a few bucks for running the node they they can accept donations and do their job well enough to earn them – otherwise they fail and someone else provides the service. Maybe you decide to spend 5 or 10 bucks a month and provide the service. But someone will, and for no reason other than than to help connect us all to one another, because that’s what we humans really desire – connection. It’s a beautiful system. It’s also easy to run your own personal fediverse node in single user mode, or tie in a plain old fashioned personal website to the fediverse, if you don’t like the idea of trusting another person to run the site properly or ethically, and many choose to do this.

This isn’t the implosion of social networking. It’s just the beginnings.

Very insightful a thank you. There is a place in society for social media. But it’s our responsibility to seek out the right platform and not be dictated to/sold/mislead/experimented on! Each generation throws up a new challenge. But we must challenge those things that threaten the society we live in. Not always a case of eradicating, but often it’s simply about taking back control and ensuring that things the powers that be so not step over the mark and become too powerful!

Sorry but this misses how Facebook works for many of us. I am 56 years old and have amassed 100s of friends and 100s of acquitances over the decades and while we live sometimes 1000s of miles apart, Facebook allows me to stay in contact with them. This is absolutely NOT about ‘living through the internet’. It’s is simply a new way of communicating. Facebook for people like me is simply the phonebook and telephone box of 20 years ago.

I just shared this with my family. Thank you for the intelligent solution, while others just can’t let FB go………….you are so right……..someone please validate me, someone, anyone! My roommate spreads her “junk postings of trivia” all over FB. I quit them and they still will not take down my page. They simply will not acknowledge my password, so it stays up. FB is pathetic and deserves whatever legal actions are taken against them, for selling our info. Keep ’em comin’, Rob! Outstanding post!

Facebook has determined that they control thought, speech, and the right to sell your life to others. A syndicate of overreaching leftists! Opinion is just that. Everyone believes something in their inner most thought processes. The have the courage to share it, only to have the grimy boot of Facebook police squash their beliefs. All after they profit handsomely on your private life! Hate Facebook ,and wish there was a good alternative to what used to be a great social site. It is no longer. It is a thought control monster!

Mewe is going to be the next big social network platform, facebook users are moving to mewe, which is very similar to facebook without the hassle of censcorship and the ever growing insidious nature of the platform. People are fed with their gestapo tactics and and attacks on freedom of speech run by left wing liberals who don’t realise they have gone so far to the left, that they are now the new far right.

Considering that Facebook has just been in in the news for hiring climate deniers as fact-checkers, I would not call it leftist. I would be politically neutral and say that Mark Zuckerberg is a jerk, and leave it at that.

Facebook have blocked me for referring to the English government, in light of their murderous policies towards children, the elderly the infirm and poor in general, as Nazis. Not to mention their covering up of Paedophilia, among its ranks. One law for Facebook and another for us, rather like this corrupt+ government of this Island. So I’m now looking for a better alternative to Facebook.

I just reported something really scary and vile on FB. They had their “experts” tell me it’s well within their community guidelines. It was publicly calling white extremists to prepare for a “race war.” Facebook is fine with that. I’m OUT. I need to do it gradually, so I can take some of my network with be – but this, on top of selling my information, on top of helping Russia elect Trump…Screw this platform. What works for you guys?

Justin. It sounds like YOU are directly responsible for why so many right thinking mind are looking for a fakebook replacement. The trend has been for a trump hater to like, then comment on a trump post. That comment is always malicious and designed to piss off trymp supporters. Eventually, the teump supporter says something in trumps defense that people like you would then report. That makes facebook determine the conservative always the offender and is then booted. No 1st ammendment with this current situation.

I have an animal rescue and we’ve been using facebook to communicate within our volunteer group. The algorithm has gotten ridiculous. I don’t get notifications about posts for 10+ hours. Even if I scroll the group page, I’m not shown everything posted there. Facebook is great for getting the word out about animals looking for homes, but it’s becoming unusable as a work/volunteer group tool. We’re currently looking for a new place to call home. Looking forward to checking these suggestions out.

I’ve been blocked from Facebook for the third time this year for posts I made over three years ago! I’m sick of the way they are taking away our freedom of speech, they’ve done this to so many of my FB friends as well! I had to delete FB messenger because they wanted my billing information to download the latest version! FACEBOOK has become nothing but a place of censorship for Conservatives, I really need to find another alternative but with so many to choose from I don’t know which one to use, any suggestions.

I have always loved Facebook but lately they are removing some of my posts. I only share pictures if my family, and post things to make friends laugh, recipes, whats going on in my life and my feeling. I loved the memories feature, photos, being able to accessorize my page. I don’t know which direction to turn. I don’t post political issues because I feel we all have a right to there option.

I think this is exactly what has happened to me. Discrimination for being Conservative. I seem to be blocked from my account of 17 years, plus an older acct, plus 2 new accts I just tried to start. BTW I checked out Mastodon and found lots of gay, radical, porn choices—but nothing conservative or Christian at all. Don’t think I will go there.

What about Ello or Diaspora? I have been getting kicked completely out of Facebook and I have had to delete my app several times. And I know that I have let my friends on Facebook know that I was looking for something outside of Facebook. My Aunt as well as a few others are looking too. But I told them as soon as I find something I would let them know. I don’t think I should be discriminated against for being conservative and this to is happening on Facebook as well.

It is good to read these comments. I am also looking for somewhere else to go. I do not like what fb is doing either. I have been reading some on these othe websites and as for me, i think i will try Mastodon. I like the things i have read about it. Good luck to everyone that is deciding to go somewhere else. Because it isn’t right that fb is trying to control everybody.

I’m just going to post some feedback on the platforms listed above that I have used, take it as you will.

First let’s talk about Vero. Anyone that is leaving FB due to privacy concerns and data management concerns would be foolish to trust Vero. Ayman Hariri the founder of Vero is the son of a currupt politician from the Islamic country of Jordan, Ayman himself is personally is a currupt billionaire businessman with serious humanitarian concerns in his recent history, just check on the abandonment of his foreign workers in his former construction company. Not exactly people I would trust with my personal information, but do with it as you will.

Now to Steemit. They claim to prevent spammers from posting excessively they limit your posts. Want to upload and share some photos or maybe use the connected DTube ,YouTube alternative, to upload a video go right ahead. You will quickly be silenced and forbidden from posting any further unless you are willing to pay. If you become popular this will go away some due to the fact that you will get more people liking your content and it will give you more “steem power” so much like high school if you are popular you can share your opinion, but if you are not be prepared to pay if you want to comment on that post. This along with the fact that 80-90% of the content is about crypto currency and people talking about Whales while telling minnows to shut up and a two week wait to even set up your account bored me very quickly. It is a horrible platform for anyone other then those who want to eat, think, dream, and talk about crypto 24/7 and who are willing to wait ages to be popular enough to talk about it freely.

Now to Minds. Minds doesn’t limit their posts or their speech this unfortunately encourages bots to share, like, and reshare everything to earn “minds coins.” There is a huge vietnamese community on minds and that is not a bad thing, but when vietnamese bots are sharing Nazi propaganda for likes it gets confusing very quickly. Yes that’s right I said Nazi! One of the largest demographics on Minds is the Nazi party. Be prepared to be called the worst things possible and read some of the worst hate speech known to man on even a flower photo. Minds considers this free speech so Nazi propaganda goes right up there with porn, transvestite porn, and a lot of swearing. Not to mention nobody ever comments on anything and if the do it’s like two words “nice pic.” Overall I truly can’t get behind minds it is filled with filth and hate and that is too bad because outside of its buggy confusing interface that requires both the mobile app and the web browser site to access all of the functions I kinda wanted to pull for it.

Stay away from these three is my advice. You can do what you want, but they aren’t worth the time and energy of original content creators or even the average person that is looking for a good community outside of Facebook. I can’t comment on the rest, but these three are junk.

I will be 77 years old in a few weeks and the last 5 years I had built a network of friends and family of course, like everyone else, posted family pictures for posterity… anyway, was locked out due to a technicality and was so very lonely after 3 months I started a new account – my frieds were excited to reconnect and I felt like a kid in a candy store. 5 Days later am locked out again and bereft.

I need to know what alternatives to FB are working for people that you can actually get your family to subscribe to..

If you close your FB account – you actually wont lose anything. FB keeps your info in case you change your mind. In terms of iTunes, pictures and favourites – they are on your PC – not on FB, so you wont lose any of those.

Jolyn, I agree with you wholeheartedly. This very same thing has happened to me. This will be the 4th time. I already started 3 times, and my friends can still see there are 3 more FB’s that belong to me out there. I don’t feel right about sending any more info. It all seems wrong… Come to think of it, Because I was hacked, then why would I want to use that same one anyway…I wish there was an alternative to fb.

Fb…just did that to me ..cut me off after a hacker hacked into my account. They’re asking for photo proof, age and my name..the list of documuments they will accept to send as proof is my ss card ..drivers licenses..things i’m not really sure i want them to see..they tell me to cover up some of the information but my address will still be visible. I even asked if this was FB. No response except they can not go future without proof..

i have asked for instructions on how to get this to them..i have no idea how to send …no response …they say i have pertented to be someone else on this account. I have since the beginning of fb…i have had hackers before get in ..on this same acct. Never was ask to prove who i am…i am doing some serious thought of deleting my fb..they have locked me out…they are not talking to me…very controlling company they have become..personally i believe its poitical.. which ..if any of these social media are best for me to jump to.?

Can anyone tell me . I would love to hear from anyone out there…fb is getting to controlling and indifferent with their clients..ty

I’m having a similar problem with Facebook. I have an assistant who was supposed to conduct a Facebook campaign for me; she still hasn’t started but in the meantime, she told me she couldn’t conduct the campaign unless I gave her my Facebook log-in info., which to my sorrow I gave to her. Now, I can’t get into my Facebook account. They’ve asked for documents to prove who I am and, like you, I don’t like the invasion of privacy. They have a second level of documents that they will supposedly accept, such as library cards, professional membership cards, and health insurance cards which don’t have the kind of personal information that I am unwilling to share. When I sent them these, they e-mailed me to say I hadn’t sent the kinds of documents they require (untrue) and when I e-mailed them in response, well, they have not responded to me and I am still locked out of my account. BIG BUMMER. I also don’t like the uses that Facebook has allowed, such as influencing elections and recently, allowing the U.S. government to pursue certain types of suspected mis-deeds through Facebook. When/if I can get back in, I am very seriously considering deleting my Facebook account and finding an alternative.

@Jolyn. FB did that to me. I wasn’t prepared to give them the very personal info that they asked for. After all, it’s just social media. So I ignored them and let the profile sit. Sure enough, after a couple of months I got the “Hey! get back onto FB now!” message. I clicked the link and presto! account reactivated – without any ersonal info provided. Never forget, unless you forget, they need us more than we need them. FB makes money from us – we just get a social media experience.

Hi Jolyn, the exact same thing just happened to me. I have followed all of their instructions, sent numerous proofs of who I am but none of the solutions work and they have blocked me from using a new account also. Meanwhile a hacker has control of my FB acct. I am upset and angry that they won’t fix this for me—I have been on Facebook for 17 years, using this same account. WTH? I think perhaps it IS political and they have deliberately blocked me. I have gone through every channel I can find to report this without any response whatsoever. So I guess I have to give up on FB. BTW, did they ever fix this problem for you?

Thanks. It’s a confusing choice. It looks like the ‘decentralised’ ones, such as Diaspora, Mastodon, Friendica and Hubzilla offer the complete opposite to Facebook. Where you can change provider just like changing email providers, yet still have access to all your friends. Where Facebook will blackmail you to stay, or cut off all contacts.